Shallow hosts Falstaff at his home and gives dinner orders to his servant
Davy in a befuddled manner. Davy concurrently tries to get a word in on
behalf of one William Visor of Woncote in a legal suit:

I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir; but yet God forbid, sir,
but a knave should have some countenance at his friend's request. An
honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not.
(V.i.43-47)

The reference to this William "Visor" (mask?) who is a knave who cannot
speak for himself is intriguing, and some of the cryptic material in this
scene may also refer to Burghley (Ogburn and Ogburn 997).

Shallow thinks he's networking since Falstaff is Hal's pal and presumably
will eventually have an in at the royal court. But Falstaff has no respect
for Shallow, as he makes clear: "I will devise matter enough out of this
Shallow to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out of six
fashions" (V.i.78-80).

SCENE ii

The Lord Chief Justice hears that Henry IV is dead and worries about
his prospects now that he's made some enemies, meaning Prince Hal --
now Henry V. Warwick agrees that he's in trouble. In general, everyone
expects the worst, and Warwick wishes Hal were more like any of the
other brothers: John of Lancaster, Thomas of Clarence, or Humphrey of
Gloucester. Clarence anticipates that the Chief Justice will now have to
kowtow to Falstaff. But Henry V enters and assures everyone that they
need not fear him: "This is the English, not the Turkish court" (V.ii.47);
he'll act as a kind of father to his brothers (V.ii.57). And to the man's
surprise, Hal commends the wisdom and fairness of the Chief Justice. He
plans to assemble the high court of Parliament to select advisors and
create a glorious reign.

Peachy. But "What became of the Chief Justice in Henry V?"
(Goddard, I 202).

SCENE iii

Shallow, Silent, Falstaff, and Bardolph drink wine. Pardoxically,
Silent becomes the life of the party when drunk and can't be shut up.
Davy announces Pistol, who in his blustering way reveals that Henry
IV has died and Henry V is now king. For future reference, take note
of his use of the word "foutre" (V.iii.99, 115). Falstaff now can
anticipate a life of leisure and makes grand promises to Pistol and
Shallow. He also will have vengeance on the Lord Chief Justice.
Silent has passed out.

SCENE iv

An uncomfortably disturbing and "sordid little episode" before the
coronation scene is often omitted from performances (Wells 150):
Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet are hauled off by a Beadle and
his officers to prison. Apparently order is being restored on all
levels, but this seems to signal like police state dynamics.
Quickly cries police brutality: a dislocated shoulder; Doll is to
be publicly whipped -- the punishment for prostitution. She claims
to be pregnant and threatens the officials with a possible miscarriage.
The Beadle is sure she's faking pregnancy: if she miscarry, "you shall
have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now" (V.iv.14-15).
Mention is made of a man or two having been killed, beaten to death
by her and Pistol. Are these the consequences of excessive tolerance
under Henry IV, now to be amended under a law-and-order king, Henry V?

SCENE v

The rejection scene is the climax of the play. Hal's comic scenes have
diminished in preparation for the rejection of Falstaff, the first
drastic indication of the new cold and calculating Henry V. In fact,
Falstaff is seen with Hal only twice in this play: in the tawdry scene
of erotic pathos with Doll Tearsheet, and then this brutal insult and
rejection.

Outside Westminster Abbey where the coronation will take place, the
crowd cheers the approaching Henry V. Falstaff arrives with Shallow,
Pistol, Bardolph, and his page. Falstaff has what he thinks is a
superfluous thousand pounds from Shallow now that he'll be a favored
courtier; Shallow expects he'll receive a knightship. Pistol reports
of the arrest of Doll:

Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance and contagious prison,
Hal'd thither
By most mechanical and dirty hand.
(V.v.33-36)

Note the short line, drawing attention to "Hal"ed?
Pistol is said to be speaking "nought but truth" (V.v.38)
-- sort of vero nihil verius. Falstaff thinks he will be
able to arrange for Doll's release.

When Henry passes by and Falstaff joyously greets him, the moment
is "one of the most devastating in any of Shakespeare's plays"
(Garber 357). Henry's words are: "I know thee not, old man" (V.v.47).

Then he subjects Falstaff to a lecture about what an embarrassment
he is, and a glutton. "How ill white hairs becomes a fool and jester!"
(V.v.48). Falstaff should concern himself with the state of his soul.
"Leave gormandizing" (V.v.53). Henry banishes Falstaff in the form of
a restraining order -- Falstaff is not to come within ten miles of
the King. "Falstaff is thus publicly repudiated and humiliated" (Asimov
417). Is Henry a "coldhearted prig"? "Accepting the Shakespearean
situation, we must see that Falstaff had invited the public humiliation
by accosting the new King publicly, and on the coronation day of all
times" (Asimov 417). Falstaff will receive a small allowance so that
he doesn't turn to thievery to make a living. "Surely this is decent
treatment" (Asimov 418). But "Falstaff, once Hal is crowned, becomes
a figure to be dreaded, to be banished ten miles from the royal person.
In the cruel speech of rejection, Henry V is at some trouble to ensure
that Falstaff be given no opportunity of dialogue" (Bloom 277).

Falstaff inwardly collapses. Henry moves on and Falstaff is immediately
concerned about the thousand pounds he borrowed from Shallow. He tries
to bluff about the former Prince Hal having to put on this show in
public but that he, Falstaff, will be sent for privately; but he
doesn't believe it and neither does Shallow. They all plan to go
off to dinner, but the Lord Chief Justice and Prince John enter with
officers and Falstaff and the rest are led off to the Fleet -- London
Prison. Words and wit have abandoned Falstaff, and he can only mutter,
"My lord, my lord--" (V.v.93). "Shakespeare spares us the sadness of
the hearing; perhaps we might venture that Shakespeare also spared
himself, since nothing appropriate remains for Falstaff to experience,
except for his beautiful death scene as reported by Mistress Quickly
and his other survivors in Henry V" (Bloom 306).

The Chief Justice and John approve of Henry V's resolve, and they
expect we'll all be off with our "civil swords" (V.v.106) to war
with France soon, oh happy day. "From snatching travelers' purses
in pure fun, Henry goes on to annexing crowns that do not belong to
him in dead earnest.... An amateur retail robber becomes a professional
wholesale one. 'Leave gormandizing,' he says to Falstaff, and turns to
his attempt to swallow France" (Goddard, I 211).

EPILOGUE

An Epilogue, apparently in Shakespeare's own voice and "written when
Henry the Fifth was still only in the planning stage" (Wells
150), speaks directly of the company's next intentions with the
chronicle history. At this point we can expect more fun with Falstaff,
but of course Shakespeare's plans changed and he kills off Falstaff
early in Henry V.

Apparently the Cobhams objected to their ancestor Sir John Oldcastle
being depicted in an earlier version of the Henry IV plays,
prompting Shakespeare to change the name to Falstaff. "Oldcastle was
viewed as a proto-Protestant and martyr" (Asimov 329). Note that
Shakespeare does not say that the character is entirely fictional,
just that he's not Oldcastle (Ogburn and Ogburn 716).

FINAL PERSPECTIVE

Some seeming stylistic inconsistences at one time had Shakespeareans
suggesting that latter portions of the play were collaborative. An
older Oxfordian explanation was that when Oxford received his
short-lived commission for service in the Low Countries he left the
half-done play to be finished by his secretaries/associates or the
"University Wits" (Clark 746).

One way of mapping the decline is to notice how much of this play
is written in prose. Almost every scene in verse is followed immediately
by a longer one in prose, full of topical humor, bawdy puns, sexual
innuendo and braggadocio, and endless discussions of how much things
cost. The prose world is swallowing up the world of poetry.... (Garber
348)

Part Two is a "darker work than Part One; "Military
success is achieved through treachery and subterfuge rather than
valor and heroism" (Farina 120). The elder Ogburns think that part
of the issue in the final version of the plays we have concerns the
rightful heir inheriting vs. an outsider (Ogburn and Ogburn 1195).
They also suspect that Oxford tried in the end to bequeath the
Shakespeare name onto Southampton (Ogburn and Ogburn 1197).

"The king's role ... is a quintessentially lonely one, and the lack
of forgiveness shown to Falstaff is part of the cost of being King"
(Garber 357). Huh? The rejection of Falstaff makes us rethink Hal
throughout the two Henry IV plays and casts an interesting
shadow over the supposedly glorious flag-waving thrills of Henry
V. Why did Hal hang out with Falstaff to begin with? Was it a
need to prove something to himself? That he can hold his own in wit?
"To reject Falstaff is to reject Shakespeare" (Bloom 278). Falstaff
will die the death of a rejected father-substitute and dishonored mentor.
But while Hotspur and Henry IV were merely in the way of Hal's route
to the crown and did not constitute an inward menace, Falstaff
must be banished. Obviously he poses a real inward threat to Hal's
sense of identity. "Falstaff's irreverence is life-enhancing but
state-destroying.... the heroic posturings at Agincourt could not
withstand a Falstaffian commentary, a counterchorus that would have
sunk the play, however gloriously" (Bloom 282). Expect repression,
a horrifying psychology portrait, and an even more horrifying roar
of popularity with Henry V. It'll be like our own times.